Recipes, reviews and recreation with the Madhouse Family - two parents, three kids, two dogs, all bilingual !

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Globe-cooking recipe : Crème Catalane (Spain)

Spain are playing today so, for my participation in the World Cup Foodie Challenge, it was the perfect time to try out my final recipe from the Spanish-themed Kitchen Trotter box. It was for Crème Catalane, which is basically the Spanish version of the classic French Crème Brûlée.

Crème Catalane

ingredients :

750ml milk

6 egg yolks

110g sugar

22g cornflour

1 cinnamon stick

1 tbsp vanilla paste

50g Turron (Spanish nougat)

Put the milk in a saucepan with the cinnamon stick and gently bring to the boil. Once it reaches boiling point, turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick.

In a separate saucepan, mix together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour. Gradually whisk in the milk.

Bring back to the boil, whisking continually, until it becomes a thick cream with the consistency of custard.

Stir in a generous spoonful of vanilla paste. (The original recipe used lemon zest but I was all out of lemons. The vanilla worked very well.)

Spoon into ramekins (I had enough for seven), leave to cool then put in the fridge for an hour.

Just before serving, you're supposed to sprinkle on some more sugar and caramelise it with a blowtorch. I actually had a blowtorch in the cupboard that I won quite some time ago and have never used so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. However, this was not to be - it needed filling with gas and we didn't have any. Aww, spoilsports ! I decided to try caramelising one under the grill in the oven but I was a bit worried the glass ramekin would crack because of the sudden change in temperature between the fridge and the oven.

While waiting to see if it would be a disaster, I broke up some of the Turron into small pieces.

Well, the caramelising-under-the-grill kind of worked but it did mean that the whole Crème Catalane ended up hot. We tasted the hot one and a cold one and decided that both were nice but we'd rather go with cold so I just skipped the caramelised sugar stage for the remaining ramekins.

This means they were a bit anaemic but they still tasted very nice. A lovely refreshing dessert for the summer.

I love creme catalane! Years ago M&S used to sell a very decent crema catalana then they stopped, such a shame. I never made it myself from scratch, as it sounds very chefy but I do buy creme brulee which you need to grill. Like you, I find it gets hot under the grill

Meet the Madhouse Family !

About Me

I'm mum to Sophie (born in 2001), Juliette (born in 2005) and Pierre (born in 2009). We're all French/English bilingual - even our two dogs Didou and Vicky ! If you have any comments or want me to review your products or host a giveaway, you can contact me at cherylpasquier2002@yahoo.fr .

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